Send information about formula and feeding bottle marketing practices that concern you to Baby Milk Action. You can also report to other bodies (details below).
Baby Milk Action will act on cases of illegal or misleading promotion. Where possible, we pursue cases with the enforcement authorities and Advertising Standards Authority. We produce reports on behalf of the Baby Feeding Law Group (BFLG) to show why regulations need to be strengthened and enforced.
You can submit information on company materials, advertisements, promotion in shops, promotion in hospitals and visits by company representatives to us and anything else. Tell us:
- Where and when the violation took place.
- Include a picture or scan where possible.
You can send us the information in the following ways:
- Email monitoring@babymilkaction.org
- Post to our Facebook page or message us
- Post to our Twitter feed
All reports are checked and are extremely useful. We do our best to reply, but there may be delays in doing so when we are busy with other work.
To help support us in this work, please consider sending a donation or becoming a member.
See our guide to the UK formula marketing rules:
- The rules that apply
- Advertising
- Baby clubs
- Retail outlets
- The health care system
- Product labelling
- Reporting violations
You can also register complaints with enforcement authorities.
Trading Standards
Look for Trading Standards at your local council. You can also report online:
Complaint form quick link (England).
Complaint form quick link (Northern Ireland).
If your complaint is about practices in a retail outlet such as a supermarket or pharmacy or on the website of a retailer or occurred in a health facility you can complain direct to your local Trading Standards Office. Click here to find your local Trading Standards Office.
You may need to refer specifically to the Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula Regulations (2007), as not all offices are immediately familiar with this. See The the page on the laws that apply.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
Broadcast (radio and television) and internet advertising comes under the voluntary Advertising Code. Complaints about advertisements can be made to the industry-funded Advertising Standards Authority at http://www.asa.org.uk/
Unfortunately it is the ASA’s policy to disregard most type of violations reported to it as it applies tests based on its own narrow interpretation of the UK law. However, please do try and let us know what response you receive.
Ofcom (product placement rules)
Ofcom (the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communication industries) has introduced rules regarding product placement in television programmes. Products that cannot be placed in programmes include: “infant formula (baby milk), including follow-on formula”. However, Ofcom does point out that some products may appear in programmes because they have been chosen by the producers as props. Companies can be fined for breaking the rules.
The text of the rules is available via Ofcom’s explanatory page click here.
To make a complaint to Ofcom – click here
Companies
You may also like to draw the attention of the offending media or shops to the provisions of the Law. Many shops provide customer feedback forms and these can be used if you do not want to speak directly with the shop management.